Inspur, Huawei and Lenovo together shipped more in 2018

Inspur, Huawei and Lenovo collectively shipped more servers this year than either Dell or HPE, according to research outfit DRAMeXchange.

The Chinese suppliers share of the 12.4 million servers shipped was 19.9 per cent, compared to Dell EMC's 16.7 per cent and HPE's 15.1 per cent. Next year it is expected to be 21.4 per cent.

Dell EMC and HPE shipped 31.8 per cent of all servers in 2018. Next year, DRAMeXchange expects their share to drop to 29.9 per cent, while share taken by the various small fry (collectively known as the "Others") rises from 48.3 per cent in 2018 to 48.6 per cent next year.

This data is far less detailed than IDC's quarterly server shipment report and selective as well, with no detailed 2017 server ship numbers available. We're informed it's approximately 95 per cent of the 2018 total. Gee, thanks.

There is no released overall growth forecast for 2019, beyond a slowdown to 2 per cent in the first half of the year followed by a potential rise as "Gen2 from Intel and Rome from AMD come out". Yet DRAMeXchange released shipment share numbers for named suppliers in 2018:

Suppliers

2018 Per Cent Share

2018 Units

2019 Per Cent Share

Dell EMC

16.7

2,074,140

15.6

HPE

15.1

1,875,420

14.3

Inspur

7.8

986,760

8.8

Huawei

6.4

794,880

7.7

Lenovo

5.7

707,940

5.0

Others

48.3

5,998,860

48.6

Total

100

12,420,000

100

It looks like a confirmation of the trends already revealed by IDC: Others, including ODM sales to hyperscalers, rise; China takes more servers; Chinese server suppliers grow their share; and Dell EMC and HPE fall back.

If the hyperscalers start using self-designed, Arm-based server tech, that will shake up the server picture. It will be even more pronounced if Chinese hyperscale buyers and server suppliers do the same thing in the name of Chinese IT self-sufficiency. Merry Christmas, Intel. ®